A place to rest... [ATOA'S TRIO!]

A place to rest... [ATOA'S TRIO!] Nov 6, 2009 18:22:14 GMT -5

Post by hg1f10 on Nov 6, 2009 18:22:14 GMT -5

I looked over my shoulder to make sure no one was following. From my knowledge, we were probably the largest group in the forest, and when one of your members had a broken leg...
I turned back to face the front. Huge snowflake clumps clung to his brown hair and left water drops on his glasses. He looked a little pale next to the snow, but he could be worse. He could be dead.
In front of him Zanne was in the lead with a pike and the rest of our supplies. Her senses were better trained for leading, and I was good at
"feeling" eyes on my back. In the practices before I proved to be a better archer than Zanne (which was odd, considering I don't touch a real bow that often), so I was the official sniper. Maybe it was because I was better at shooting moving targets, as I did with a rabbit we happened to encounter. Terry could still kill with a pike, so he used it as a support for his leg. Every now and then we had to stop and tighten the splint; I had a feeling it was going to be like this for a while.
While I tightened the strings, Zanne would scout around the perimeter for a good place to stay. This time she came back, reporting a thick grove of bushes, brambles, and dense trees. "It's not much," she said, "but it'll keep the snow out and the warmth in."
She was right: it wasn't perfect. We spent a good deal of time clearing an opening in the thick thorny mesh before Zanne was able to squeeze through (she was the tallest of us all). The snow still fell, but it was lighter thanks to the thick foliage of trees above us. A three-foot cushion of snow layer the ground, making it almost impossible for Terry to walk. Following where we cleared a path, Terry looked around.
"Well, better than nothing," he commented, burrowing down in the snow at the base of a tree. All that walking and the strained leg had drained him. From the tone of voice and the lack of movement, I could tell that he was pretty down from fatigue. But when I suggested he sleep, he shot back, "No! It's not THAT dark." I shrugged and climbed up another tree to keep watch.
I don't know how much time passed, but for that time we all just sat there, staring at each other, staring at the trees. I wondered how long all this would last. I could die tomorrow in an infinite number of ways. Terry could be dead this next second. My hands were freezing as I fretted over the Games. My name and Terry’s name, out of all the names that were chosen…well, I guess it was simply inevitable.

A place to rest... [ATOA'S TRIO!] Nov 14, 2009 12:21:58 GMT -5

Post by hg1m10 on Nov 14, 2009 12:21:58 GMT -5

I dozed on and off for the next few hours. In between I picked up scraps of conversations exchanged by Zanne and Fyuori. The high snow packed in and kept my body heat in. I didn't want to leave this spot.
It then occured to me that we hadn't really eaten anything besides some frozen berries.
"How are we going to cook that rabbit?" I asked.
"I don't know," Fyuori said. "I think we're just going to have to risk a fire. The treetops are thick enough to cover us."
Zanne scouted around for wood and tender while Fyuori skinned the rabbit, laughing, "Guess it was a good thing my dad taught me one thousand and one ways to slotter animals." I didn't know whether to be impressed or a little frightened. Doing some poking around on my own, I found a few basil leaves and some of those spicy yellow peppers that they sometimes serve with pizza. There was a horde of them, so Fyuori and I chewed away at some of them while Zanne looked on almost disgusted. "How can you stand something that spicy plain?" she asked.
Fyuori smiled. "Practice, my fellow tribute. Practice." And with that she took another bite out of the pepper that made Zanne decide to cut some more tender.
When we had everything in order (it was decided that we wouldn't stuff the rabbit with peppers, and Zanne couldn't stand them), Fyuori took out the matches and carefully lit the thin wood tender. With a delicate flautist's breath, she fed the flames until it was burning the rest of the wood. Zanne adjusted some branches around so it would have minimal smoke. With some pieces of string and branches, we tied the rabbit to a hand-made spit and set it on two stands for it to rest on while we turned it. Fyuori opened the can of nuts, forced some into me ("You need to keep your protein up!") and dumped the rest with the bread. Taking the can, she supported it on a few branches and set it under the rabbit to catch the oil and juice that dripped down, occasionally stirring in some snow, basil, and pepper.
"It can't beat chicken broth," Fyuori said as she stirred it. "But this can be tomorrow's breakfast." I had to admit, it smelled fairly nice. The rabbit was fully cooked, and using the blade of a pike and a few arrows we cut off some pieces and began our first real meal in the Arena. Zanne took the head and strung up a trap with it. "Maybe we'll have something bigger and better to eat," she said.
"Or maybe we'll have ourselves another trib to take out," Fyuori added.
"Yeah, that's a great idea!" I said. "We should set up a trap with the soup! Someone could smell it for miles!"
"ONLY when we're ready," Fyuori said, capping the can of soup and taking another bite of rabbit and pepper. "That needs planning. We need fallback plans in case we attracted a herd of Careers. And also what to do about YOU."
"Well, it's gotta happen sooner or later," Zanne said. "Whether we like it or not."
I agreed. It's inevitable. It won't be long until the Gamemakers decide to stir things up even worse.